Durban to play host to the World Social Science Forum 2015

The city of Durban will yet again play host to another major international event – the fourth annual World Social Science Forum(WSSF2015) will host delegates and speakers from more than 50 countries.

Speakers scheduled to speak at the forum include the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) director general, Irina Bokova. Themed “Transforming Global Relations for a Just World”, delegates will debate the future development of people around the globe at the forum.

The forum is scheduled to take place in Durban from September 13 – 16, ten days before the drafting of the United Nations’ Post-2015 Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Bokova will deliver the keynote address at the opening of the forum.

The Forum promotes innovative and cross-disciplinary work, cross-science collaborations in the natural and human sciences, and engagement with donors and decision makers in the science community worldwide. In organising the 2015 World Social Science Forum, CODESRIA and HSRC will be joined by a consortium of universities and research centres from across the African continent. The theme of the third WSSF 2015 will be “Transforming Global Relations for a Just World”.

Ministers from participating countries and the likes of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Professor Jomo Kwama Sundaram, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Professor Jayati Ghosh, and executive director of the African Arts Institute Mike van Graan will also speak at the forum.

“We are trying to understand the cultural dimensions of development,” said Van Graan of his focus at the forum. “How do you pursue development and how do you understand development, both itself as a cultural construct, but also in the context of societies where culture is an important player?” Additional areas to be covered at the forum will be gender, violence, climate change, poverty and citizenship, ethics, and the challenges and opportunities for overcoming global inequality.